Route of ascent and descent: First visit: Approached on the ridge from Nethermost Pike. Descended to Grisedale Tarn and eventually down to Grasmere.

Second visit: Climbed up direct from Patterdale, via the route described on page Dollywaggon Pike 7. An easier climb that one might think it’s going to be. Descended to Grisedale Tarn again, but this time went up Seat Sandal next.

Dollywaggon Pike summit cairn. No, I don’t know why the teddy bear was there. Nothing to do with me guv.

What Mr Wainwright says (on page 2 of his chapter): “Like most of the high fells south of the Sticks Pass, Dollywaggon Pike exhibits a marked contrast in its western and eastern aspects. To the west, uninteresting grass slopes descend to Dunmail Raise almost unrelieved by rock and scarred only by the wide stony track gouged across the breast of the fell by the boots of generations of pilgrims to Helvellyn. But the eastern side is a desolation of crag and boulder and scree: here are silent recesses rarely visited by walkers but well worth a detailed exploration.”

What I say: Before my second visit this page stated that I had not yet got to know Dollywaggon Pike as intimately as its neighbour, Nethermost Pike. Both can be ascended from Ruthwaite Lodge by routes which are described in similar terms by Wainwright (including in the Helvellyn chapter, where both are suggested as ascent routes for that parent fell, too).

Having now filled that gap in my knowledge on my second visit, when I ascended from the Lodge by the route depicted on page 7 of Wainwright’s chapter, I will say that it’s a climb worth doing; but it is neither as rocky nor as exciting as the one up Nethermost. On the other hand, the fact that it is not these things makes it more accessible. I think any active walker could get up by this route with no discomfort, and it’s certainly a more adventurous approach than just doing it the way most other people do it, via the main Helvellyn path. Definitely worth a visit.

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[…] project got me into the heart of the Lake District, from Patterdale to Grasmere via the summits of Dollywaggon Pike and Seat Sandal. Dollywaggon Pike was my main target as it was five years ago that I went up its […]